Patient experience – the ingredient missing from cost-effectiveness calculations

Figures & data

Table 1 Survey results

	Median (intraquartile range)	Correlation with subject age – tau (P-value)	Correlation with subject income – tau (P-value)
Daily cost to take a tablet twice daily	5 (3–13)	0.19 (0.03)	0.16 (NS)
Daily cost to take a tablet with sedative side effects	60 (20–250)	0.15 (NS)	0.22 (0.01)
Daily cost to take a tablet with sexual side effects	100 (30–350)	0.12 (NS)	0.31 (0.0005)
Cost to have one injection	200 (60–400)	0.20 (0.02)	0.26 (0.004)
Cost for each of a series of weekly injections involving attending a clinic	100 (40–100)	0.21 (0.019)	0.27 (0.002)
Daily cost to be admitted to a general medical ward	300 (150–500)	0.13 (NS)	0.41 (<0.0001)
Additional daily cost to have a painful injection which stings afterwards	100 (30–350)	0.15 (NS)	0.24 (0.007)
Daily costs to be admitted to a psychiatric ward	400 (250–700)	0.088 (NS)	0.42 (<0.0001)

Notes: An internet-based survey was set up and responses were invited through a variety of sources including a newsletter for employees of a UK National Health Service trust, a service users’ group, Facebook, and Twitter. A total of 104 responses were received of which 57 provided usable data. Participants were asked to declare how much they personally would charge in pounds sterling to undergo a particular medical intervention if it was devoid of benefit. Nonparametric correlation coefficients were calculated using Kendall’s tau. The survey can be viewed online at: http://www.smd.qmul.ac.uk/statgen/dcurtis/survey.html.

Abbreviation: NS, not significant.